?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
WELLS, H.G. The First Men in the Moon. Illustrated with 12 inserted plates by Claude Shepperson. 8vo, original gilt-stamped dark blue cloth, spine darkened with head and foot rubbed including short splits to head, small nick to rear joint, few superficial surface marks; black endpapers (Currey's priority A), short closed tear to blank margin of penultimate plate, Eugene Plunkett bookplate and bookseller's label to front pastedown. London: George Newnes, 1901
truly fine association copy of the first english edition, first printing in the first state binding, signed and inscribed by the author: "To W.E. Henley. With affection, from H.G. Wells [flourish]." William Ernest Henley was a noted editor, man of letters, and poet as well as collaborator with Robert Louis Stevenson on four dramatic works. As editor of several important London and Edinburgh periodicals Henley published contributions by such distinguished writers as Barrie, Hardy, Kipling and Yeats. It was he who encouraged Wells to develop his early versions of The Time Machine into a full-length book, publishing the novel in serial form in The New Review. Wells' gratitude was such that he dedicated the book to him. Signed copies of this title are scarce; we trace only three others at auction. Currey, p. 518; Hammond B7; Wells 18.
